This invention relates generally to surgical apparatus useful for contouring medical implants and the like, and more particularly to apparatus for preventing loss, damage or contamination of an implant during a contouring process.
Surgical specialities such as otolaryngology, plastic and reconstructed surgery, neurosurgery, and orthopedic surgery, frequently involve the implantation of autograft, homograft, or alloplastic or other non-natural materials in a patient. Such implants must be contoured very precisely during surgery to an exacting size and shape in accordance with the needs of a particular patient. Contouring of implants, which is analogous to a micro-machining operation, may generally involve measuring, cutting, drilling, chipping, ronguering, splintering with biting forceps or otherwise shaping the implant. Such operations require care to prevent damage, loss or contamination of the implant. In using a surgical drill, for example, to cut or shape an implant, the surgeon typically holds a small drill hand piece in one hand and the implant in the other hand, and manipulates the drill and the implant to accomplish the required contouring. Care must be exercised during this process to avoid over-shaping of the implant, which may render it unusable, and to ensure that the drill burr does not catch the implant and cause it to fly away. Similarly, in cutting or splintering an implant using biting forceps, care must be exercised to avoid loss of control of the implant by the surgeon.
Autograft materials are obtained at some risk in morbidity to the patient, and if the implant is lost or otherwise damaged or contaminated during the contouring procedure, harvesting of further material from the patient becomes necessary. Homograft implants represent a significant expense to obtain and store, and if lost, damaged or contaminated represent a significant financial loss, as well as a loss of valuable human material. Alloplastic and other artificial material implants also represent a significant financial loss if they are lost, damaged or contaminated during the contouring process.
It is desirable to provide apparatus which will assist a surgeon in the contouring of implants and which will minimize a possibility of loss, damage or contamination of the implants, and it is to this end that the present invention is directed.